Loki fled Asgard's commercial district with Helen in his arms, practically running for his life.
On the way back to Asgard Palace, he remained in a daze. All he could hear were the Asgardians' sighs of regret, their praise for the Second Princess, pure as moonlight, and their curses for those damned Kree.
Loki simply could not understand how things had turned out this way. When he had been in Asgard, no one had thought highly of him. Yet after his death, he had become the most perfect princess in Asgardian history.
Although Loki understood the human heart better than most, he had never systematically studied psychology or sociology. If he had possessed that educational background, he would have known that creatures with humanity and intelligence shared a common trait, one that could roughly be summarized as the "social will Deification Effect."
People were always filled with all kinds of beautiful fantasies about things they did not possess. They had never truly owned such things, yet they praised them to others more enthusiastically than those who did possess them. At its core, they were praising the perfect image in their own minds.
This itself was also a behavior that sought validation of one's values: I have idealized something in my mind into what I consider the most perfect form, and if others also think it is perfect, that proves they share my values, and we will have something in common to talk about.
This was how people sought shared values in social interactions.
But if they praised something that many people possessed and that received mixed reviews, there would be an uneasy feeling that they might not gain agreement.
So, in order to gain agreement and the sense of security that came from validation of their values, finding something thoroughly